Abstract
Dear Editor,
This has reference to a recently published article in your journal entitled, “Letter to the Editor: Repurposing of an Antisepsis Drug in COVID-19 Patients,” by Kumar et al. 1 There are two blatant mistakes in the article, which I would like authors to correct in the article.
They mention, “Although any previous application of Mw in viral pneumonia is not known, it was found effective in treating warts caused by human papillomavirus6 and recently had been proposed as a prophylactic drug for pulmonary tuberculosis. 8” Reference 8 does not discuss Mw as a prophylactic drug for tuberculosis. In the referenced study, Mw was used as an adjunct therapy in Category 2 tuberculosis patients. 2 Since I am the communicating author in that study, I believe that this mistake should be corrected.
Second blatant mistake is when they write, “It is a cheap and over-the-counter available oral drug with no significant systemic side effects.” It is not an oral drug. It is an injectable suspension of killed Mycobacterium w in physiological saline used as an adjunct therapy along with multidrug therapy for multibacillary leprosy and tuberculosis. 2,3
Editor's Note
The authors of the original letter were asked to reply, and responded with the following comment:
“The corrections suggested by the author are appropriate. We express our gratitude to the author for correcting errors in our manuscript and recommend publication of these comments.”
The Letter to the Editor by Kumar et al. 1 has been updated to reflect these corrections.